Arkansas House rejects changes to prosecutor elections

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas House has rejected a proposal to make the election of state prosecutors nonpartisan and move the state's judicial runoff elections from November to June.

A bipartisan group of 50 House lawmakers on Monday voted against the measure that would make state prosecutors nonpartisan positions, meaning candidates would no longer be listed on the ballot as Democrats or Republicans. Forty lawmakers — including both the Democratic and Republican leaders — voted in favor of the bill.

The proposal called for the state to collect the filing fees for prosecutor candidates, with the first $100,000 collected going toward a fund for state trial court assistants. The measure would also move judicial runoff elections from the November general election to the second Tuesday in June, when primary runoffs are held.